Puppet Strings
by Random guy16
Summary: They thought they could permanently break her, make her weak. All they succeeded in doing was creating an opportunity. M for safety
1. Discovery

**AN: Woo another fic. I like puppet naruto. I like fem naruto. I don't see ANY of those together. So here we go. Also some ideas were taken from other authors whose names I can't remember, so credit for said ideas go to them.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did I wouldn't need to be writing this.  
**

**Puppet Strings**

**(Konahagakure no Sato)**

It was a blur; everything was a blur as she ran. She couldn't, she wouldn't stop running. As the rain pelted her body, her heart slammed against her chest. Her bare feet pounded on the pavement, trying desperately to keep their owner away from the people who wished her harm. The girl rounded a corner and almost tripped on the slippery ground. She was so close, just five more streets and she would be in the protection of the old man. It was not to be. A blinding pain from her leg sent her to the ground. She looked at her leg and saw a kunai imbedded in her flesh, too deep to pull out without causing more pain.

The small girl turned around and saw four men in the attire of a Chūnin. Evil grins spread across their faces as they pulled out more kunai. The man in front spoke, "Well you damn demon, seems you won't be getting away this time. The Hokage won't be saving you this time; no one will hear you scream in this weather." With that said they descended on her, their weapons digging into her flesh. As she screamed for them to leave her alone, one of them kicked her hard in the leg and broke it. This continued for several hours before she began to stop screaming. Wanting the girl to keep feeling as much pain as possible, they backed up and allowed one of their comrades to go through several hand seals; the name of the jutsu lost to the storm, and launched a ball of flame at the girl.

Once again her screams began anew. As her body burned, it healed at an inhumane rate, not allowing the girl to fall into the sweet embrace of death. After several minutes, the constant downpour of rain put out the flames. The burns over her body healed once more. Still the men were not pleased. One of the men created a small flame in his hand and placed his kunai in it. Once the blade was red hot, he extinguished the flame and walked up to the girl's curled up form. He kneeled down and spoke, "Don't worry. This will hurt far more than what we've already done." His comrades held the girl down as the man placed his kunai over her left eye before cutting it out. As she screamed and thrashed about, he moved on to the right.

He did not have the chance to remove the rest of her sight as a blade ripped through his chest. He looked down, then up to see the Hokage and a woman with dark hair and the Uchiha clan symbol on her cloak brutally killing his comrades. He just stared, his body in shock, as they finished and the woman walked behind him. Cold breath washed over his ear, "You disgust me." The blade in his chest was twisted, making him cry out, and was ripped through his shoulder.

As the man the man fell with a thud, the woman picked up the girl. She then quickly left for the hospital as the aged Hokage burned the bodies, leaving nothing but ash in his wake. A lone tear fell from the old man's eye as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, heading for the hospital.

**(Konoha Hospital)**

The young red haired girl stirred as she began to wake from her rest. She didn't want to be awake, it hurt. She heard voices in the room, one of them belonged to a young woman. As the girl stayed still she heard the woman speak in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry lord Hokage, there is nothing more we can do. It has already healed all of her other injuries except her eye. We can't do anything either, we can't heal what doesn't exist anymore."

A tired, elderly voice spoke up next, "I understand. Thank you and your co-workers for doing the best you could." The sound of light footsteps could be heard before the opening and closing of a door. The girl opened her sole eye and touched where the left one should be and found it covered in white medical gauze. She sat up and saw the old man in the red and white robes of the Hokage sitting in a chair to her right. He looked at her apologetically. When he spoke, his shame was audible, "I'm so sorry Naruko. I'm so, so sorry."

She tried to say it was okay. She tried to say it wasn't his fault. But she couldn't. She could barely feel anything. So instead she spoke a voice that belonged only to a person who had seen and felt too much suffering, someone who was broken, "Apology accepted." Her remaining eye stared at him blankly before turning away and bringing a hand up to touch the bandage over her missing eye. "Is it true that they can't heal me?"

He lowered his head, "Yes."

She remained silent for several minutes before speaking again, "Is Mikoto here?"

The old man nodded before getting up and walking out the door. Several minutes later the woman from before burst through the door before bringing the young girl into a tight embrace. "Oh Kami, I was so worried Naruko." She let go of the girl before seeing the blank look on the girls face, "Naruko?"

"I'm glad you're here Mikoto. Thank you for saving me," was the monotonous reply.

Tears began to form in the Uchiha's eyes, no child should be so broken, "Oh kami, I'm so sorry I couldn't get there sooner." The red haired girl didn't respond. _"Please forgive me Kushina. I couldn't protect her," _she thought.

The Hokage watched this from the doorway. He was thinking of how he could prevent this from happening again. He couldn't think of anything as he couldn't keep an eye on the girl all the time and neither could Mikoto. Then an idea hit him. He might not be able to stop it altogether but he could keep her away from danger for a couple weeks. He walked over to the girl and voiced his idea, "Naruko, how would you like to get out of Konoha for a while?" Mikoto's head shot up in surprise at the idea while Naruko looked back at the aged man. "I'm going to Suna for a few weeks. How would you like to come with me?"

The older woman quickly spoke up, "Sarutobi she's only five! She can't go to a place like Suna, she could get a heatstroke!"

He responded by saying that she would be with him. Before Mikoto could retort, Naruko spoke up, "I would like that." Mikoto glanced worriedly at the five year old. She sighed before conceding.

She was about to speak when the Hokage interrupted her, "You will stay here Mikoto. I know you want to keep an eye on Naruko but I need you to keep an eye on them for now."

She didn't miss his emphasis on them and sighed angrily, "Fine."

With that settled both adults left the room after saying good-bye to Naruko and that the old man would pick her up tomorrow. Naruko lay down and went to sleep, hoping for the next day to come quickly.

**(Village Gate)**

Both the Hokage and Naruko were now standing at the village gates as Mikoto gave Naruko a good-bye hug and kiss on the forehead. After Naruko hugged Mikoto in return, she left with the Hokage and his personal ANBU. The old man lifted the small red head onto his shoulders before taking off at break neck speeds, his guard keeping up with their leader. Mikoto watched them go with no small amount of worry; she had a bad feeling about this.

**(Forests of Hi no Kuni)**

As the party of six made their way to Suna, the small girl would randomly ask questions about the village. "It's not much to look at but the people there are decent. They have their own kage, instead of a Hokage though it is the Kazekage."

"Why are we going there?" Naruko asked.

"Well, me and the kazekage are going to talk about an alliance incase war ever broke out again," he responded.

She nodded her head. She didn't understand much but from the times the old man went into "Professor Mode", alliances were basically a "I watch your back, you watch mine" thing. She began to doze off as the rhythmic movements of the kage's tree jumping fought to put her to sleep. As her head landed on the old man's hat, the ANBU smiled behind their masks at how peaceful the girl looked. She had been burdened greatly since her birth and it was rare when they saw her like this.

**(Gates of Sunagakure no Gato)**

The group from Konoha was within sight of Suna. As they neared the gates, they could see the Kazekage and a squad of shinobi flanking him. Next to him stood his three children, a blond haired girl, a brown haired boy, and finally a red haired boy around Naruko's age. The Kazekage stepped forward when the group stopped in front of them, "Sarutobi, you made great time. I hope the trip wasn't too arduous on you," he noticed the sleeping girl on the old man's shoulders, "and your little friend." The children and Suna shinobi looked at the old man and indeed, there was a small pair of legs hanging around the Hokage's neck.

Sarutobi smiled good naturedly, "I may be old but I can still handle that little jaunt," he jolted his shoulders to waken the girl, "Naruko, we're here."

One of the tiny legs through themselves around the Hokage's back, allowing the now revealed five year old climb down the man's arm. She looked at the group in front of her, "Hello, my name is Naruko. It is nice to meet you." The shinobi were shocked at the broken voice, while the children were confused at her strange way of talking. The Kazekage looked at the Hokage, asking for an explanation.

"Later." The Kazekage nodded.

"If you would please follow me Lord Hokage," with that all of them began heading for the middle of the village, towards the Kazekage tower. After several minutes of walking they arrived and the shinobi went in.

The Hogake turned around to look at the children who had to stay outside, "We'll be a few hours. Why don't you show Naruko around? I'm sure she'd love it." The older two of the children nodded as Sarutobi walked in. Then, when he was out of sight, they looked at the younger two.

"Do whatever you want, just don't bother us," stated the brown haired boy before he walked off, his sister going in another direction.

The two looked at each other before the boy spoke hopefully, "Would you like to play?" She nodded and they walked off, not aware of the young eyes following them.

**(Kazekage Tower)**

The two most powerful men of their respective villages sat in the Kazekage's office. They had been discussing the terms for the alliance for the last few hours and had yet to make any definite agreements. Deciding that they had discussed enough for the day, the younger of the Kage finally brought up the subject that had been bothering him the whole day, "Sarutobi, that girl you brought with you, the way she spoke, it isn't natural for a child to sound so broken. Could you elaborate?"

Sarutobi sighed and looked at his counterpart, "You've known ever since the kyuubi attacked that we have had a jinchūriki. She is the container."

The younger leader couldn't hide his shock. That was Konoha's jinchūriki? She looked so broken. He had planned to turn his own son Gaara into a weapon but… to actually see the result of what would most likely do. "H-how did this happen?"

"Several of my Chūnin had attacked her several days before I left. They had tortured her and… removed her left eye with a heated kunai," the Hokage responded.

The Kazekage looked taken aback by this; he had not seen her lack of an eye. In fact, her shoulder length hair had completely obstructed the left side of her face. Then he thought of how his son could be like that if he stayed on the path he was walking. Would he have allowed this to happen to his son for the sake of having a weapon? Would he have to look into the eyes of his own blood and see nothing? No, he couldn't. He spoke up, "Maybe we should go see how the children are doing."

They were about to leave when Gaara burst through the door, despite the shouts of the jonin behind him. "Dad, Dad, they're going to hurt her! They're going to hurt her!" he screamed in a panic.

"Who's going to hurt who son?" the kazekage asked.

"The bad kids, they're going to hurt Naruko!" he kept screaming.

At this the Kazekage and Hokage ordered their respective shinobi to find the girl and bring her back safely. As the younger Kage kneeled down to comfort his son for the first time in five years, the Hokage ran out to find the girl he had brought with him to protect. _"Oh how you fail, Sarutobi,"_ he thought to himself.

**(In a back ally)**

She sighed; it was just like back in Konoha, only with children. The bullies that had chased after her for playing with Gaara had past her hiding spot several minutes ago. Looking out from behind her cover, she saw that no one was out. She looked up, the sun was just setting and it was getting cold really fast. She looked around for anything that might give her shelter and saw a small hole, barely visible from behind a pile of sand. She began removing the sand from the hole. When she reached the bottom of the building she placed her hands in the crack and pulled on the loose piece of wood. It was far harder to move than she thought but she was able to make a large enough hole for her to crawl through. She then replaced the wooden board before looking around the building.

It looked like it would collapse on itself. That was all that could describe it but at least there seemed to be a bed and some blankets on the other side. She began walking towards it when the floor under her gave way. She yelped as she fell several feet and landed on her back. She looked up and saw the floor she had fallen through close. She looked around again and found a much better kept room. _"Well, that's good I guess. Might as well look around," _she thought.

The room was rather bare except for ten doors and a desk with a scroll on it. She walked over to the scroll and noticed a seal of a scorpion. She broke the seal and read the scroll.

_To the one that finds this scroll,_

_I am Sasori of the Red Sand. I am ageless, my skill is unmatched. I am a master of my art, the art of puppetry. I leave you, the shinobi of Sunagakure, my workshop as a final taunt. You will use my tools and my work to strengthen your own puppets. You will fail. Good luck imbeciles._

_"Hmm, I'm not from Suna, Sasori. So I guess your secrets are mine to master," _she thought to herself. After all, this place hadn't been discovered yet. She didn't know how long it had been here but Suna didn't seem to want these secrets enough to search for them. Puppets sounded like fun. She looked through all the doors. One held a library of scrolls, six of them held parts and pieces for puppets, the next held all the tools for building, the one after held some trees, the last looked like a hospital room with dozens of tables, except it smelled disgusting. The one thing they had in common was that they were all huge

She headed for the library, "Well time to begin."

As if her small statement had been the word of kami, seals in the building began to glow and time seemed to slow outside.

**(Outside)**

A week of searching and there had been no word of the red haired girl. Sarutobi grew increasingly worried. Finally the Kazekage suggested that they continue the negotiations while their shinobi looked for her. After each session, the Hokage would create several shadow clones and join in the search. Meanwhile the Kazekage spent time with all three of his children, trying desperately to make up for lost time in fear of seeing those eyes. He never wanted to see his children with those eyes.

**(Inside)**

She had been in here for what felt like months. During this time she had read all the basic scrolls but had only unlocked her chakra and could create a basic chakra string needed to control puppets. She had also gone over basic finger movements to move the puppets parts. Currently she had both hands connecting a chakra string from each finger to a small arm. As she moved her fingers, the arm floated over to a shelf and removed a random scroll. She brought the scroll over to her and tried opening it. As her concentration wavered from the arm to the scroll, her strings broke and let the arm fall to the ground. "Darn," she cursed childishly. She brought her lone eye back to the scroll.

_This is jutsu I gained while examining the body of a Konoha jonin._

**(Outside)**

Another week had gone by and the only difference in the situation was that the Kazekage had become closer with his children. The villagers had taken notice of this change in their leader and had at the very least stopped telling their children to stay away from Gaara. The shinobi were still turning the village inside-out for Naruko.

**(Inside)**

A lone blue eye looked out from behind a curtain of red hair at the thing across from her. She raised her right hand and shot out five strings of chakra and connected them to a testing puppet that she had created. It had just the bare minimum to practice, a torso, legs, and arms. As she twitched her fingers the puppet game to life and settled itself in a standard taijutsu stance. Nineteen more puppets came to life, nine joining her own, and the other ten faced off against the first ten. She looked around and saw nineteen clones of herself each controlling their own puppet. She nodded and the puppets all charged eachother.

**(Outside)**

The old Hokage began to look his age as his shinobi once more told him they had seen nothing of the girl. The only good news right now was that the negotiations were going well. He looked out the window and saw Kazekage's children playing. The brown haired one, Kankurō if he remembered right, was using a toy puppet to reenact a children's story. He smiled tiredly; a family reunited was always something he loved to see. He placed his head in his hands as his thoughts went back to Naruko.

**(Inside)**

Naruko looked at the scroll she had found in the room of trees. It said they were chakra trees, trees that survived purely on chakra and were used for Sasori's puppets. She looked up at the trees to see all of them black and dying as they had ran out of chakra to feed on. She shook her head, _"I guess I'll have to use the already made parts."_ With that she left the room and went to the part supply rooms.

**(Outside)**

The negotiations had finished and the Hokage would have to leave soon. His fellow Kage told him they could stay as long as needed to locate the red haired girl. It had been four weeks since her disappearance and they had searched all of Suna and the surrounding desert. There were still no leads on her location. If they didn't find her in the next week, the Hokage and his entourage would have to leave without knowing what happened to the girl. He couldn't stay forever as he had other duties as well. He looked up and pleaded to whatever kami was listening, _"Please let Naruko be safe."_

**(Inside)**

She felt a bead of sweat fall down her brow as she forcefully kept her hand motions steady as the brush swept across the parchment in intricate motions. The scroll to her left showed the appropriate arrangement of symbols for a heavy duty storage seal array. When she deemed it a perfect copy of the scroll, she sealed the puppet she had spent kami knows how long working on. Now that she had finished that piece, she could practice other seals. With that in mind she made a cross sign with her index and middle fingers and exclaimed, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" When the smoke cleared, forty of the five year old girl spread out and began sharing scrolls on sealing.

Once they picked a seal to practice they all grabbed a brush, ink, and parchment to practice. When they would finish, they would disappear in a cloud of smoke and sent their knowledge of how, and how not to, do that seal. They would keep doing this for what felt like a year.

Of course this was just one room dedicated to sealing. The others were crammed with their own red heads that were studying and memorizing the knowledge the scroll they were reading. The original had moved to the hospital like room with a scroll that read "poisons".

**(Outside)**

Sarutobi stood in his room as he and his ANBU prepared to leave. He couldn't stay any longer and search for Naruko. He was still the Hokage no matter how much he wished he could just pass on the title. He sighed tiredly and waved for the men and women in his escort to follow him.

**(Inside)**

Naruko looked around as her clones ran about sealing everything that had been in the hideout. She lifted her shirt's sleeve and looked at what looked like a tattoo of a fox. She dropped her sleeve as the clones began dispelling. Two of the remaining clones came up to her and gave her two scrolls. She took both, the one in her right hand having everything from scrolls, to puppet parts and tools, to seeds for her own chakra trees, and finally the different plants and poisons she had used and created. The scroll in her left hand was unlabeled. She put both in the pockets of her now destroyed shorts.

Finally she turned to the ceiling where she had fallen all that time ago, the large seal array on it pulsating at random intervals. At last it died away and the trap door opened, allowing her to leave the way she had come.

**(Gates)**

The group from Konoha was just about to depart as the Kages said their final good-byes. "I'm sorry we couldn't find Naruko. If we see her, I'll make sure you know right away," the Kazekage stated. His children behind him nodded, Gaara especially so.

The Hokage smiled thankfully, "Thank you, you have no idea how much that means to me," he sighed, "I suppose it is time to leave." He turned around and was about to speed away when a childish voice came from behind them, "Hey gramps, you're not going to leave me here are you?"

They all whirled around to see Naruko jogging up to them. Before she even reached the gates she was lifted off her feet and into Sarutobi's arms. She returned the hug with some hesitation. He put her down and kneeled in front of her before asking, "Where have you been Naruko? I was very worried."

"I don't know. It was very dark and scary," her monotone voice easily hiding the lie.

All present frowned at this. She must have ended up in an abandoned warehouse. "Well, I'm glad you're safe now. We were just about to leave. Would you like to say good-bye?"

She turned to her fellow red head and nodded. She walked over to him before giving him a hug and a quick, "I hope we meet again." With that she walked by to the Hokage where he then placed her on his shoulders, leaving a blushing boy in her wake. Finally the leaf shinobi turned and left for home. On the way Naruko began thinking to herself, _"I guess I don't look too different since everyone still recognizes me. Plus gramps was just leaving so that seal in the hideout must have been a time manipulation seal."_ She stopped worrying about it as she was once again lulled to sleep by the steady movement of the Hokage's running.

**(Konoha)**

Naruko slowly woke up to the light of the sun shining on her face. She turned over in the bed she had been sleeping in but couldn't go back to sleep. She sighed before she sat up and pushed the hair hanging over the right side of her face behind her ear. She looked around before realizing she was in her apartment. Getting out of her bed she began stretching to get rid of the kinks in her body. She then noticed something pressing into her legs. She quickly pulled out the scrolls she had put in her pockets when she left the hideout. She put the storage scroll on her bed before looking at the unidentified scroll. Examining it for a second, she opened it and read the title.

_The art of Human Puppetry_

**AN: Viola it is done :D**_  
_


	2. Revalations and Idiots

**AN: AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! Hello beautiful readers. I have decided to start using suffixes as they make communication in the story flow easier, in my opinion anyway.**

** Also either I am a really good writer and you men and women (and others :D) have nothing to truly review about or your just TOO DAMN LAZY! If I get like 50 favorites and alerts a day, you'd think I'd get at least 2 reviews. To those who have thank you, you make me feel all warm inside. EndGame666 especially, those things annoy me too (not much but still) and I'll try to avoid them.  
**

**Puppet Strings**

**(Apartment)**

Naruko re-read the title, not sure what it was supposed to mean. She was about to look at the description when there was a knock at her door. She jumped onto the ceiling and channeled chakra to her feet just like she learned in the hideout. She moved over the door and crouched, ready to attack whoever tried to get in. After several moments a voice came through the door, "Naruko-chan? It's me Neko."

Naruko relaxed and walked down the wall to the floor and opened the door to see a woman with waist length violet hair in an ANBU uniform and a neko mask. "Neko-oneechan, it is good to see you. Is everything ok?" she asked.

The woman nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama just wanted me to come get you."

Naruko tilted her head a little, her only sign of confusion, before asking, "What for?"

"I don't know Naruko-chan but I'm sure you're not in trouble," Neko said. She then crouched down to allow the girl to climb onto her shoulders. After locking the door they both disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

**(Hokage Tower)**

Sarutobi took a puff of smoke from his pipe as he waited patiently for Neko to return with the five year old he wanted to talk to. He thought back to when he had put her to bed and saw those scrolls in her pockets. When he had opened them he was shocked, the first held a plethora of scrolls and parts and tools in storage seals. The second scroll disgusted him though. The Kage had put both back though, as he didn't want to lose the trust she had in him. That was why he wanted to talk to Naruko, he wanted to know what really happened to her in Suna and show her he could be trusted completely with these kinds of things.

He heard a knock on his office door, "Enter!" When the door opened he saw Naruko holding Neko's hand. He smiled warmly at the scene. It seemed Naruko still loved those who had been close to her, even if it wasn't as obvious anymore. He gestured for Naruko to sit down on the seat across from him. He looked at Neko, a silent order in his stare. She looked at Naruko, her expression hidden behind her mask. She turned and left, closing the doors behind her.

Naruko tilted her head to the side in confusion. Sarutobi sighed as he put out his pipe and activated a security seal to keep whatever was said in the office from leaking to the outside. Naruko's shoulders tensed slightly but it did not go unnoticed by the old man. He looked her square in the eye with concern and asked, "I know something happened to you in Suna. I wanted to talk to you about it. Don't worry about anyone overhearing us either. I made sure no one can hear what you say."

She shifted in the chair before speaking, "I told you jiji. I was in a dark and scary place." She didn't want to tell him about her discovery. If she did he might take all of it and give it to Suna. She had been stuck in that sealed off room for what felt like years. She didn't want everything she had worked for to be taken away. She still had to go through some of the scrolls she had sealed away. _"I still have to learn what Human Puppetry is!"_ she thought somewhat frantically. Throughout these thoughts she kept a blank face.

Sarutobi sighed tiredly, "Please don't lie to me Naruko-chan. You can trust me with this. I am only concerned for you. Please Naruko-chan, trust me." It started in a reprimanding tone before turning to almost begging.

She lowered her head causing her hair to cover the only visible side of her face. She couldn't lie to him forever. He was her family and had protected her from so many of her attackers. She looked up and tucked the hair over her right eye behind her ear and spoke, "Ok, ok I'll tell you. After you left…"

The next few hours were spent retelling what she had done and learned in the hideout. She told of how she learned to wall walk and use the chakra string. She told him how she had learned the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, surprising him that she even had the reserves for such a technique and making him think, _"the seal works fast."_ She told of how she had made her first true puppet, not including the practice dummies. She told him of how she had spent much of her time using Kage Bunshin to learn sealing. He now understood why she tensed when he activated the security seal. She told him of how she had managed to get to what would be considered expert level in sealing by Sasori's standards. _"She truly is an Uzumaki…"_ he thought after hearing of her skill in sealing. She finally told him of how she had learned to use and create poisons. The rest was history.

He sat back in his chair and rubbed his forehead. She had done so much in so little time. No scratch that. She said it felt like years had gone by thanks to Sasori's time manipulation seal.

He then decided to solidify her trust by telling her he had looked at the scrolls, "Naruko, when I was going to put you to bed I noticed you had two scrolls in your pockets." She stiffened considerably and a hint of betrayal could be seen in her eyes. "Do not worry I will not take away your supplies." She relaxed slightly.

Then she thought of his wording, "And what about the other one?"

_"Quick to catch that eh?"_ he mused. He then replied with his own question, "Have you read what that technique is?"

She shook her head, "No I never got the chance to read it."

"Would you please read it?" he asked simply.

She eyed him with some confusion and pulled the scroll out of her pocket. Which she just realized weren't destroyed. How did she not notice her change of clothes and suspect someone saw the scrolls? _"Lesson 1: always be aware of your surroundings. Good job Naruko," _she thought to herself irritably. Back to the task at hand, she opened the scroll and began reading.

_The art of Human Puppetry_

_This is my greatest work, to create artwork from your enemies. I created this technique many years ago as my contribution to the art of puppetry. I have used this to turn the bodies of my fallen enemies in puppets. But they are not just mere puppets. No, these are far more powerful. When they are turned into puppets, the bodies keep their chakra network thus allowing them to use jutsu and the bloodlines they had in life. This is how I had learned of the Kage Bunshin. To any who can master this technique, I congratulate you and consider you a rival of the art. But the next step in the art of puppetry will be far more difficult. You must create your own contribution to puppetry to see our art grow._

It then went on to tell how to properly turn the body into a puppet without destroying the chakra network. It also told how to record the jutsu that the body had used in life. There was a note that said this didn't apply to seals however because they were independent of the body.

Throughout this she had kept a completely calm face. When she was done she looked at Sarutobi. He looked at her seriously and asked, "After reading that, do you still want to learn that?" She looked at the scroll for a moment before looking back at him and nodded. He sighed, "Then keep it."

Her eyes widened and her jaw fell. Wasn't he going to take it? Apparently not, because he just took out his pipe and lit it before taking a puff. She shook her head. _"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth,"_ she thought. She then asked, "What now?"

He thought for a moment. She had trusted him with this information but Neko and Mikoto would be worried about Naruko. "Would you like to tell Mikoto-chan and Neko-chan about all this?" he asked.

She didn't need to think long on this. She could trust those she considered family, they needed to know. She nodded.

He smiled. This talk was probably what she needed to reaffirm her trust in the three adults. He deactivated the security seal and called through the door, "Neko-chan, would you please bring Mikoto-chan here?" There was an affirmative reply before he felt Neko's chakra signature head off for her target.

Several minutes of waiting while chatting with the red head passed before he yelled, "Enter!" The doors opened and Neko lead in the Uchiha woman. "Would you stay as well Neko-chan?" he asked when she was about to walk through the door. She stopped in surprise before closing the doors and stood next to Mikoto. "Have a seat." They sat down; Naruko getting up so Mikoto could sit down before jumping onto the woman's lap. He spoke when had reactivated the security seal, "I think Naruko-chan wants to tell you both something."

**(Naruko's apartment)**

Several hours later after an explanation of what happened in Suna and several near death scenarios for the old Hokage for losing the girl and letting her learn Human Puppetry, Naruko and the two women were at her apartment. She was showing them some of the things she had learned like wall walking. They were both impressed by her skill but when they asked if she knew water walking, she only responded that there wasn't any water to practice on. Mikoto had then promised to take Naruko out and teach her how to water walk.

Yūgao Uzuki, the now unmasked Neko, suggested Naruko learn how to use a sword while not so subtly indicating she was a sword master. Mikoto laughed, "I think she'll be fine for now. I only want to show her water walking so she can have better control to use her chakra strings." Yūgao just pouted.

An hour later both women left to go home, both thinking of how they could help Naruko in any way they could.

**(Two months later)**

Naruko couldn't sleep. It just seemed to elude her tonight. She had this feeling it was just a bad idea. Even so she still kept the lights off so as not to attract attention.

She sat on her bed with a small candle while reading over the Human puppetry scroll again. It amazed her that such a thing was possible. It still boggled her mind that they could also keep their chakra to use jutsu and their bloodlines. She had to re-read the part where it explained how to learn the jutsu the body had used in life. It had to do with reading how the chakra pathways shaped themselves.

_When the body uses a jutsu, its chakra system makes subtle changes to itself to allow easier use. By reading these subtle alterations, you learn what the jutsu was._

She put the scroll down and scratched her head. She still didn't fully understand, _"I'm sure I'll get it when I actually do it."_ Her thoughts were broken by a distant crash from below her. Someone had broken through the front door of the apartment complex. She heard the sounds of many voices shouting. There was no one living in her building or even the ones surrounding it so she knew it had to be a mob trying to once again kill her, _"Again_." She walked out to the front room and stood across from her front door. The loud stomping of feet grew closer to her door, _"Civilians."_ No decent shinobi would be that loud.

Finally her door was kicked in and a dozen men and women came in. The leader, a fat man, spoke, "Today's the day you die girl. You have spent too long plaguing our village. Now we're going to finish what the Yondaime started." The others behind him began shouting similar things and waved around whatever weapon they had brought with them.

She just stared blankly at them before replying, "If you don't leave now, I will not be held responsible for happens to you."

They laughed and a pink haired woman with a grotesque amount of make-up and a shrilly voice spoke, "Ha you, harm us? Please you are weak now fox. Stuck in a child's body, and now we will have our revenge on you, beast!"

That said they charged her. Naruko brought her hand up to the seal on her shoulder and released her first creation. Smoke filled the room, making the adults stop and cover their mouths as they tried to get the smoke to leave their lungs. When it cleared they took a step back. In front of them stood a woman with pale skin and a shapely body. She had a heart shaped face with three whisker like marks on her cheeks and red slitted eyes. Her body was covered by a black kimono with white edging that fell off her shoulders, revealing much of her cleavage. The sleeves fell past her hands and had red and gold flames decorating them. She had red hair that fell to the small of her back. Finally on her head, instead of human ears she had red fox ears with black tips and at her tail bone she had nine red tails, also with black tips.

Naruko lifted her right hand and connected five chakra strings to the puppet before speaking, "Do you like her? Her design came to me in a dream. I spent much of my time in Suna trying to make her as realistic as possible. Took forever to get the face right, you know? Had to give her a beautiful yet fierce look and all that. There was also the problem of finding a material that looked close to skin," Naruko waved her hand in a circular motion, the puppet imitating her action, trying to convey her thoughts.

The man in front spoke in an enraged tone, "I knew it. Now there is no hiding behind that façade of a child. Making something like this in your own image, it's disgusting."

Naruko looked at him like he were an idiot, "Do you have any idea how stupid you sound?" Not even caring for an answer she began moving her fingers. The puppet's tails split open and launched dozens of poisoned senbon needles at the civilians. The ones in front were hit in fatal points all across their bodies. The ones behind them scream and tried to run away but the door they had come through slammed shut with a twitch of Naruko's finger. They looked at her in fear and horror. "Thank you for volunteering to be my first human puppets."

As the village slept, no one heard the screams of the damned.

**(Council Room)**

It was time for the weekly council meeting and Sarutobi prepared himself for a certain pink haired councilor's screeching for the death of one Uzumaki Naruko. When he opened the door he was surprised to see that every one of the councilors was there except for Haruno. "Where is Chikako-san?" he asked those present. They just shrugged, the shinobi didn't care and the civilians thought she was still doing her hair and make-up. _"After all, appearance is everything,"_ Sarutobi struggled to keep himself from rolling his eyes at the thought. "Well then we will just have to begin without her."

An hour later and the Haruno still hadn't arrived. The Hokage ordered one of his ANBU in the room to go and retrieve her. Ten minutes later and the ANBU came back and reported to his leader. "She is not at her home Hokage-sama. And her daughter, Sakura, says she hadn't returned since she left last night."

This caused the civilian side of council to go in an uproar about a searching party while the clan heads mentally sighed in relief. Maybe the woman was finally dead. The Hokage's voice boomed over the noise, "Silence!" he looked around the room and continued when all attention was on him, "I will order a search party to find her. Until then, this meeting is over."

All the councilors stood and began filing out the door. When they were all gone, Sarutobi contemplated what could have happened. Nearly every man in the village made it a rule to not even talk to her so rape wasn't an option. Maybe she was murdered. Her shrieking had left many with the thought of ending her. He'd find out when the search party gave him any news.

For now he was going to visit Naruko.

**(Naruko's apartment)**

Naruko's lips twitched upward slightly. Finally after so many failures, she had succeeded. She had spent all night carefully following the instructions in the scroll. The first eight bodies she had destroyed the chakra system. The final one though had been a man who most likely had a job in heavy lifting. "Made it easier to find his chakra network I guess," she said to herself.

She frowned when she thought back to the pink haired woman and the fat man. They had been so disgusting to look at she didn't even bother thinking about making them puppets. But that wasn't the problem. When she had killed them, she had made several clones to get rid of the bodies. When she had been working on the first body it hit her that she should have burned them. Thanks to her clones not caring where they put the bodies, they hadn't bothered to look at their surroundings. Now she didn't know where the bodies were and someone could find them. She then shrugged, only the Hokage, Mikoto and Yūgao would suspect her.

Then she froze. She told them of how puppets often used senbon with poison as long range weapons. _"Darn,"_ she thought to herself, _"Maybe I'll just get a slap on the hand. After all they did attack me."_

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts. When she opened it she saw the Hokage. _"Oh crap."_ She looked up at him and saw him smiling, "Yea jiji?"

"Hello Naruko, how are you?" he asked.

"I'm good. Didn't get much sleep last night though," she responded while rubbing her only eye.

He frowned in pity, "Oh? I'm sorry to hear that. Anyway, what do you say about going out for some ramen?"

She nodded and locked the door. She took his hand and they both left the building. They walked down the streets for a while before Naruko asked, "Can Mikoto-oneechan and Yūgao-oneechan join us?"

He smiled, "Of course."

Ten minutes later they had picked up Mikoto and Yūgao since she was on break. They arrived at a new ramen stand that had been set up several days before. The owner and his daughter were nice in Naruko's opinion. Mikoto finished her ramen and turned to the red-head, "So how are you doing Naruko-chan?"

Naruko smiled slightly in pride, making the adults smile but become confused, "I'm doing great."

"Oh? You look you did something amazing. Wanna tell?" Yūgao asked.

"Later," was the gir'ls response.

They were about to question her more when an ANBU came into the stand. The Hokage turned to her when she leaned in and whispered something into her ear. His eyes darkened. He thanked her and stood up. "I need to attend to some business," was his answer to their silent question.

They looked at each other in confusion, before getting up and following him. They arrived at the Hokage tower and Sarutobi told them to wait outside.

**(Office- an hour later)**

Sarutobi took another puff of his pipe as he thought about what the ANBU search party had told him.

Apparently they had found the body of Haruno Chikako in the forest next to that of a wealthy merchant. He would have worried about an assassin had it not been for the fact he was "The Professor". To someone who wasn't so well versed in the way of shinobi, which were a lot considering his experience, it looked like any other assassination. They were both important and rich people and could be considered viable targets but it didn't make sense when someone looked at the whole situation.

The merchant may have been rich but his business wouldn't affect Konoha's economy. That eliminated the idea of one of Konoha's enemies targeting him. Then if he had made enemies with one of his fellow merchants, why would they kill a councilor as well. It would only add more heat to the one who hired the assassination. Vice versa for the Haruno, since she could easily be replaced then there was no reason for her to be a target of Kumo or even Iwa.

The facts that lead to his current conclusion were that they both hated Naruko with a passion. He wouldn't be surprised if they had paid several of the mobs that had tried to kill Naruko. There was also the way they were killed. There were only several senbon in several fatal areas of the body and the poison found in their blood. Then Chikako's daughter said she had left her home last night. Naruko said she hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

It all pointed to Naruko killing them.

He sat back in his chair and tapped his pipe on his chin. _"Now how am I supposed to deal with this,"_ he thought to himself. He knew it was a case of self-defense so Naruko was safe from the civilian council. Their lack of knowledge in the village laws was annoying but this would be one of the times it would be amusing.

He pressed the intercom on his desk and asked his secretary to bring in Naruko and the two older women. Within moments they were sitting across from him. He took a moment to look at Naruko. She seemed to have realized what this would be about and lowered her head slightly. He then gave her a picture of Haruno and the fat merchant, "You know what happened to them, don't you Naruko-chan?"

She nodded her head slowly.

"Tell me what happened to them," he told her. The two other females looked back and forth, confused.

"They broke into my apartment last night with nine more people and proceeded to try and attack me. I killed them in response," she said, shocking the two women.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" he asked.

"I thought that if I told you, then you would have to imprison me."

"Good thing this is a case of self-defense then," he said nonchalantly. Everyone looked at him with surprise and then smiled. There was nothing the civilian council could do unless they wanted to break their own laws. "Now I'm confused though. If there were more, what did you do with their bodies?" he asked.

"I used them to practice Human Puppetry," was her blunt answer.

"What!" came the cry from the other three occupants of the room.

Mikoto and Yūgao quickly grabbed her in a hug before Mikoto asked, "Oh Kami Naruko-chan are you ok? Why would you do such a thing?" She was horrified at the idea of the little girl disemboweling human bodies at such a young age. It scared her even more what it could have done to the girl mentally.

"Onee-chan, I'm fine. And I did it because I wanted to improve myself in puppetry. And I did too, I made my first human puppet this morning," she said with pride.

They balked at this. The Hokage hesitantly asked, "And the others?"

Naruko's cheeks turned red in embarrassment, "I, uh, kind of destroyed their chakra system." She turned away and laughed nervously.

Her embarrassment seemed to drain all of their shock and worry. Yūgao chuckled lightly, "How is it that disemboweling people makes you more expressive?"

Naruko shrugged, "I'm weird like that I guess." They all laughed at that.

Sarutobi made a decision then. Things were only going to get worse as she aged, so he would give her the chance to grow in strength.

He bit his thumb and went through several hand seals before placing his hand on a seal under his desk. A scroll then fell into his hand. He brought it up and showed it to the females and spoke, "Naruko I promised I wouldn't tell you any of this until you were sixteen or became a chūnin. But since you seem to be trying to keep secrets lately," she turned red at this, "and have… matured mentally, I will at least tell you half of this secret."

His serious demeanor made them all sit up straight. This had to be important if he wasn't supposed to tell Naruko something for that long. Naruko nodded, "I won't tell a soul."

He nodded at this. "Your mother was Uzumaki Kushina. She came to Konoha sometime before her home village of Uzushiogakure no Sato was destroyed. She was the second most powerful person in the village, second only to the Yondaime due to his Hiraishin no Jutsu. She was the heiress to the Uzumaki clan, now making you the heiress when she died during the Kyuubi attack. The Uzumaki clan was one of the most feared clans in the Elemental Nations for their knowledge in fūinjutsu. As a result, before the third shinobi war Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri lead a three week siege on Uzushio before getting past the barriers. It took another two before the village was destroyed. This scroll has everything that your mother left for you. Her knowledge on fūinjutsu, the jutsu's she learned, even the sword she used in ANBU. It is now yours," he finished.

She looked in awe at the scroll and story. She was from a clan that took five weeks for three of the great shinobi villages to destroy? Her mother was the second most powerful person in the village? And now she was being given what made her mother so powerful. She could only give a small, "Thank you jiji."

Before she could grab it though, he pulled back, his eyes filled with mirth. "But first," he said, laughing at her pouting, "to get this, you have to join the academy."

She didn't even need to think about, "Deal."

***Review box*: feeeed me!**


	3. A Not so New Enemy

**AN: Well hello everyone. Yea, i had a bit of lazy syndrome. It's a very serious sickness I tell you. Can't get anything done.  
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**Any who, enjoy the new chapter. Remember to review and tell me whether I suck (no flame) or not.  
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**Flames will be used to make s'mores.  
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**Disclaimer: I own nothing still. Except this story.  
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**Puppet Strings**

**(Konohagakure no Sato)**

Naruko looked over the village from atop its famed Hokage Monument, the four faces of the passed Hokages watching vigilantly over the village. She couldn't help but smirk mirthlessly at the thought. Had they truly been watching, she would still have her eye.

Much had happened to the red haired girl in the past few years. Now at the age of eight, she was much taller than when she was younger. She should probably attribute that to the fact she ate a much better diet at the insistence of the Hokage. Though she most likely wouldn't go any farther than her measly forty-eight inches now. Her shoulder length hair had grown even wilder, giving her a somewhat feral look. She had taken to wearing a black and orange kimono to help conceal the scrolls holding her puppets and other objects she considered too valuable to leave in her apartment.

Speaking of her apartment, it was now the bane of any who tried to hurt the girl. The first floor was lathed in hidden traps ranging from trap doors, to senbon launchers, and poison gas. The second floor was routinely patrolled by several dozen puppets that the villagers had oh so kindly donated.

The scrolls that the Hokage had given her had helped her immensely with her sealing. Though, too her chagrin, she found out that she was barely an apprentice by Uzumaki standards. The puppets patrolling the apartment were controlled by a small seal array that would connect chakra strings to five puppets. The chakra trees that she had begun growing in a large cavern the Hokage had made were now being saturated by seals that stored and created chakra. Lethal if used on something more complex than plants but very useful in gardening.

The scroll left by her mother helped greatly in refining her sealing skills. She had combined the styles between Sasori and her clans sealing to create seals that could do things Sasori's alone could never come close to. Whereas he would most likely need to constantly be in control of the puppets, if any, that guarded his bases, she could create a small sealing array and attach multiple puppets to it and forget about them. When he would need to manually repair his puppets, she had seals on her puppets to repair minor damage and sealing scrolls that could automatically repair puppets that were lost cause. Provided, of course, she sealed the proper resources into said scroll.

Despite how she may have been mastering seals at an accelerated pace, she still made mistakes. Often times a seal would simply not activate. Others would blow up in her face. It took several months before her hair was long enough to cover her missing eye again. She had been rather distraught then as she had apparently grown a quirk for having her hair cover the bandages that covered her missing eye. After that she always wore her hair back when working. There had been other incidents that weren't as serious except for one.

Now the Hokage, Yūgao, and Mikoto generally accepted her experiments in sealing and lightly scolded her about safety and how dangerous failed seals were. One incident however had the women nearly deafen her about her carelessness and almost gave the aged Sarutobi a heart attack.

When she was seven, she had been testing the seal that would repair her puppets. Somewhere along the line however, she had screwed up. When she activated the array it had exploded violently, not exactly unexpected. She had been thrown out of the apartment complex into the building next to it, that was unexpected. The Hokage had arrived several minutes later and took the girl to the hospital. When she awoke, the Hokage told her she had been unconscious for several days, once more unexpected. The doctor soon came in and began talking about tests that they had been taking to test her health and the news didn't bode well for the red-head. When the seal had exploded, it had apparently affected the cells within her body. Instead of splitting and dying, they were now repairing themselves. She was now ageless and could only die if someone were to kill her themselves, unexpected and not exactly unwelcome. This would have made most people ecstatic as the thought of eternal youth appealed to nearly everyone. Of course they would also want to have their adult bodies. Naruko on the other hand was now stuck in a seven year olds body until someone shoved a blade through her skull, unexpected and annoying but still not unwelcome.

That now meant she would never physically mature, which was fine by her books. She had read scrolls about puberty. She was actually relieved she wouldn't have to deal with those hormones. Though, she was upset that she would never achieve anything more than a genin's physical strength level. That didn't do much to deter her considering she liked would most likely spend her time on the sidelines while controlling her puppets. Plus there was also the nice bonus of having everyone underestimate her for being so small.

The sound of footsteps behind her broke Naruko from her thoughts of the past. She turned around to see the Hokage. She returned back to looking over the village as he sat down next to her. They sat in silence for several moments before the Hokage spoke, "So how are you today Naruko-chan?"

"Fine jiji," she replied simply.

He looked at her for a second, "Thinking about the past again?"

Her lips twitched, "What makes you say that?"  
"You've been doing that a lot lately. I don't understand why though considering your age. Not much to look back on."

An almost unnoticeable smirk wormed its way onto her face and asked evenly, "Oh? Are you saying I can't think about the past unless I'm covered in wrinkles?"

He laughed, "That hurts you know. I take great pride in my looks. Not often someone lives to be my age and stay as fit as I."

She shook her head at his words. He had been trying for years now to get her to open up more often with jokes like this. His efforts worked to a degree since she smiled more often around her sisters and the old man. Around the villagers however she was completely blank. It was the most they would get out of her as far as Naruko was concerned. They didn't even deserve a disgusted glance. They were below her with how idiotic they could be.

"So tomorrow is the new semester of the academy, are you enjoying yourself?" Sarutobi asked.

"I could care less. The Aburame is the only one tolerable in my class," she responded.

"Disappointed in the clan heirs?"

"I failed two years in a row so I could join their class and gauge their personalities. I expected them to at least understand what it would mean to be a shinobi. Instead they act like it's a game. Is this the future of Konoha? Because I have little faith in the new generation," she stated.

He grimaced at that. She was right, of course, but he couldn't help but shake his head at how the life of shinobi had been so romanticized. He had been to many countries on diplomacy since the last war and the only ones he could say that had stayed true to how shinobi should be made were Kumo and Iwa. And since they were enemies of Konoha, he wasn't too pleased with how his village was turning out. Unfortunately, he was becoming too tired to do anything. The civilians had enough political power to make changes they saw fit to the academy. Though he should be happy he wasn't too old to stop them from doing anything ridiculous. He would need someone take the hat within a decade at most before he became too tired and gave them free rein.

"What of the Aburame boy?" he asked. There was at least hope in that clan.

"One heir in an entire village won't do much for its future. I admit, him being on the council will at least keep the idiots at bay. And while a clan head has some major sway, there are too many civilians who can outvote him. The Hyūga girl is too shy to do anything. The Nara is a sloth and would most likely care less about what goes on in the meetings. The Inuzuka is a perverted idiot and would most like rather spend his time rutting some poor misguided woman that decides to say yes. The Akimichi I'm not sure about but if their anything like their fathers, he'll go with what the Nara decides. Yamanaka is a fan-girl and nothing more. And the Uchiha seems to be following in his father's footsteps so I don't have much hope that he will make decisions for the good of the village," she finished disapprovingly.

"They are still young Naruko-chan. They might change for the better," he mused.

"They were raised in a village that is half controlled by you and half controlled by civilians. Children grow to be like those who raised them, their parents have been more lenient with the civilians than you honestly. Once again, I don't hold much hope for them."

"And why is the Aburame different?" he asked curiously.

"Because I've seen him around the village a few times when I was improving my stealth, thanks for those scrolls by the way, and he has often opposed his father on actions that seem illogical. He cares about what makes sense, not what pleases him. Though I suppose it pleases him when he's right but that's beside the point. He may be quiet most of the time, but he is very vocal when needed. He'd oppose the civilian council at nearly every turn if their idiot streak keeps up," she stated.

There was a long silence. "You follow him?" Sarutobi asked.

Naruko blushed slightly, making the Hokage grin in triumph, "Really jiji?"

He laughed, "I'm joking Naruko-chan. But in all seriousness I see your point. And you shouldn't write him off as not being able to do anything. All it takes is some fancy maneuvering in politics to gain an advantage." He looked up and saw that the sun was setting, "You should go home. The academy starts tomorrow."

She nodded and stood up, "Good night jiji."

"Good night Naruko-chan."

With that she walked off, leaving Sarutobi to his thoughts.

**(Streets-Near Uchiha compound)**

Naruko decided that since she still had a few hours before she would truly needed to go to sleep that it would be nice to drop in on Mikoto. _"She always makes the best tea,"_ she thought.

When she walked up to the large gates separating the district a strange smell caught her attention. It smelt of iron. That was odd in itself since weapons didn't emit much of a scent. What else smelt of iron?

_"Blood."_

She quickly ran through the gates. Before long she came upon the first body. She rolled it over and opened the woman's eyes. They were the black of all Uchiha's. From the vest she wore, the woman must have been a Jōnin. Who could be powerful enough to kill a Jōnin and not alert the entire village? She took a scroll out of her sleeve before unsealing a civilian puppet. As it began walking into the district, the young red-head moved into the shadows and followed at a safe distance.

As she went farther into the district she saw more and more bodies, all of them Uchiha. She became more and more un-easy. How could a clan be slaughtered without alerting the entire village?

Her steps became more cautious as she moved through the shadows.

After following the dead bodies for several minutes she realized that it was going in the direction of the main house. Said house being very familiar and very important to the red-head. The house of one Uchiha Mikoto.

Despite her want to barge into the building she held back, not knowing if the attacker was still inside. The puppet cautiously approached the front door and opened it. It wasn't instantly destroyed so that was a good sign. Both puppet and master entered the building and were met with the sounds of metal striking metal.

Unable to hold in her impatience and worry, Naruko quickly rushed to the master bedroom. Logic taking its hold once more she slid into the shadows and had her puppet open the door.

The sounds of battle ceased for a second before a woman tackled the puppet as a flurry of shuriken flew over their heads.

_"Onee-chan!"_

"What the hell do you think you're doing here? Go!" Mikoto yelled. It was obviously meant for her more than her puppet.

Naruko wouldn't leave her. The puppet didn't budge, a look of fear etched on its face. _"Hopefully the attacker will be distracted long enough for kyuubi to strike."_ She would need an opportune time to release her first puppet however so as not to expose her position when it was un-sealed. It wouldn't matter though.

"Naruko-chan, it's been quite some time hasn't it?" a smooth voice asked.

She froze. "No," she whispered.

She turned and saw Mikoto's oldest son.

She kept her voice calm, "What are you doing here Itachi?"

"That should be obvious," he said calmly motioning towards the bleeding Mikoto.

"You've gone mad."

He shrugged slightly, "Maybe."

A moment of silence as the two females stared down the strongest of the Uchiha, one unsure of how to proceed and the other trying to halt the flow of blood from her chest. There was no wind, the normally running stream in the garden was still, Naruko could swear the only sound she could hear was the beating of their hearts.

She moved first. Moving a hand over her shoulder, Naruko released her Kyuubi puppet. Without hesitation it leapt into action, releasing hundreds of poisoned senbon at the Uchiha.

He dodged them easily before pulling out his blade to block several of the puppet's tail blades. His other hand blocked a clawed hand while he kicked out and sent the fake woman back and rolled to the side to avoid the other blades. Before he could get to his feet however, a giant ball of flames engulfed him.

Mikoto turned around quickly and blocked her son's blade as he tried to stab her through the back. Using her weak state, Itachi pushed his blade and shoved her onto her back. His blade came up and slashed at the civilian puppet that had attempted to grab onto him, bisecting its chest and sending it crashing to the ground. He refocused on his mother only to notice that she had replaced herself with a log and appeared near Naruko. Before he could move towards them, the civilian puppet, fully repaired, grabbed onto his arm and began emitting a hissing noise.

Quickly punching the puppet and shattering its chest, Itachi replaced himself with a rock and escaped the exploding puppet. Now thoroughly irritated, Itachi decided to stop playing and leave before the Hokage came.

For Naruko the world slowed. Itachi turned towards them and moved at speeds greater than she could imagine. Her faithful puppet moved to protect its master, unleashing a storm of kunai, shuriken, and senbon from its many storage seals. Poison gas leapt from its mouth. Mikoto launched her own kunai and fireballs at her son. Everything moved so slow to her. Itachi's body flickering between the sharp weapons, smashed through the cloud undeterred, countered Mikoto's flames with un-holy black ones. His sword weaved between puppet-Kyuubi's tails, removing them with ease. His fist slammed into its chassis, its torso caving in. She could have sworn she heard herself cry out in despair for the puppets destruction.

Too slow to react, Mikoto found her son's blade puncturing her stomach while he moved on to deal with the young red-head.

She tried, she really did, but as Itachi's fist came down on her, she could only watch as her hands moved in slow motion to block the strike. _"Too slow."_

Her world went black as time returned to normal. Mikoto hit the ground hard, barely grasping at life.

Itachi disappeared moments before the Hokage arrive with several dozen ANBU. He ordered them to find the insane teen and if necessary, kill him. As they disappeared he looked upon the two females now being carried off towards the hospital. A tired sigh escaped him. With troubled thoughts, he turned and followed the medics.

**AN: No godhood for you Naruko-chan =D**


	4. Oh Son of a

**AN: Sup peeps... ignore that .  
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**So here you go the long awaited chapter four.  
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**And remember your reviews are like candy for me. If I don't get any I won't come back... yea I will but still :3  
**

**Puppet Strings**

**(Konoha-Hospital)**

"So what's the damage?" Sarutobi asked.

"Physically, she got off rather easy. Only a concussion which should heal within a few hours thanks to the Kyuubi. Emotionally, should Mikoto not survive, she could very well break," was the Nurses quick reply.

"And… Mikoto?"

"We've nearly lost her several times in the past hour. Honestly sir? I doubt she'll survive. If she does however, she still won't be able to return to active duty. When the blade pierced her stomach, the angle at which the blade entered was enough to sever her spine."

Sarutobi wiped his hand across his face. So many things had gone wrong in the span of a few hours. Just once he wished that life was simple and boring. Not only was one of his best shinobi now permanently disabled but the little girl he taken great lengths to protect and train could very well become an emotional wreck and, most likely, go on a killing spree.

He lazily waved his hand and the nurse quickly left the room, most likely to go tend to the Uchiha matriarch. He turned to the small child in the hospital bed and released a heavy sigh. He had personally saved her from dozens of attacks. He had executed more of his villagers to care to count anymore. But even then, the one time he wasn't able to help in time had changed the girl forever. And now, the second time he wasn't there could finally break the girl.

After several moments he left the room to attend to the other matters at hand.

**(Mindscape)**

She had been here before. This fortress that made up her mind. Only two times if she remembered correctly. The first time when she had gained the inspiration for her first puppet's design. The second was the night she was told the true story of the Kyuubi attack. She had been told many things that day. How the Yondaime sealed the demonic beast within her. How she was the third Uzumaki to hold it and how her mother had been the second. Many things indeed.

Then she had met the beast face to face. It had revealed itself to be a female and her human form had been the girl's inspiration while she was in Sasori's hideout. It had tried to make her remove the seal with promises of power. She had refused. The fox seemed as if it were about scream and trying tearing the girl apart even through the bars that made up its prison in the seal. Instead, it seemed to get an idea. Kyuubi then offered a deal. Should Naruko ever be forced into her mindscape by a traumatic event, say a loved one being harmed or killed, then the girl would fuse with a portion of the beast's power.

Suspicious of the beast's motives to give her its power, Naruko questioned as to why it wanted her to have its power. It had answered simply, "**If you fuse with my power, and you will kit, I will at least be able to feel the outside world once more. This damned prison is so dull that it drives me mad. Of course, I will also become a more… prominent part of your life."** The grin it had was unnerving, even to the usually unresponsive girl. "**Oh yes, very prominent."**

After a long time of contemplation, Naruko had agreed. If she was weak enough to lose one of the few people she cared for, than she would need more power. Damn the consequences.

And now she was back after being defeated by Itachi and watching him stab her Onee-chan in the stomach. She was actually somewhat glad for the deal now.

Naruko rose from the luxurious bed that she had been on. Once luxurious anyways. As she looked around she noticed that the reinforced walls of the fortress were cracked and crumbling. Furniture was strewn about, molded, broken and covered in cobwebs. Knowing it was caused by the scarring effects of watching Mikoto most likely die on her sub-conscious, she ignored it. Leaving the room, Naruko quickly walked through the maze of her mind and headed for where the dungeon would be.

Reaching her destination, she stopped several feet in front a cage that apparently had no end and was tall enough to disappear into the shadows. But that was insignificant to the girl. What was however, was the pair of enormous crimson fox eyes staring at her.

"It seems you were right," she said.

A booming demonic chuckle shook the room, "**Hmhmhm, of course I was."** Red tendrils of demonic chakra began slithering through the bars towards the girl.

Naruko merely spread arms out and tilted her head back, waiting for the mountainous fox to do its work.

The last thing she felt were the tendrils of demonic red energy stab into her. The last thing she heard was the laughing of the Kyuubi while she screamed in pain.

**(Hospital)**

While the process was dramatic in her mind, in reality, there was very little indication of her fusion with the beast. No flashes of light, no screaming, no explosion of chakra to wake the entire village. No, the process was rather tame.

As more and more of the Kyuubi's tainted chakra became hers, she began taking somewhat halved look. The left side of her hair became even more wild than before. The nails on her left hand lengthened into sharp claws. The whisker marks on the left side of her face darkened and thickened. Her left canine lengthened nearly an inch. Finally a tendril of Kyuubi's energy flowed into her empty socket, ending in a tiny red flash.

All this went unnoticed by those outside the room.

**(Council Room)**

"Sarutobi what is the meaning of this? It is nearly ten in the evening and-" a civilian began before a kunai embedded itself into the table in front of him.

"Do not presume you can demand information from me lest I remove your mouth from your face councilor," Sarutobi said. He was not in the mood for the civilian's whining.

Not caring for the shocked looks he received, the old Hokage continued, "As of two hours ago, Uchiha Itachi massacred the entire Uchiha clan save for his brother, who was not present, and his mother who is in the hospital being treated for critical wounds."

"What!" was the general response.

Hyūga Hiashi spoke up, "How is that she survived?"

"She survived because Uzumaki Naruko had tried visiting her. While I don't know the whole story since neither are awake I can only guess that she had distracted Itachi long enough force us to get too close for his liking and most likely flee before we arrived," the Hokage informed the clan head.

"There is no way that a child could fight the Uchiha prodigy. Plus, how do we even know she isn't the one who had killed the clan," a random civilian asked.

"Going off your logic how would it be possible for a child to kill an entire clan, the Uchiha clan no less?"

There was no response.

"Exactly, so anymore of you with the idea of accusing Naruko shut up. And we know it was Itachi since his body wasn't there and several ANBU saw him fleeing the village not too long after we arrived. Now I called you all here not only to inform you of this incident but to talk about how we are going to deal with it. As the Uchiha were the main police force in Konoha we will need to compensate," Sarutobi said while looking around the room.

The meeting continued through most of the night as they went about making sure that Konoha would have a stable future.

**(Hospital)**

Sarutobi sighed as he walked back into the hospital. The meeting had gone on through the night and the only thing agreed on was that the information on the massacre should be made public, as the people would notice the lack of Uchiha immediately.

He pushed those thoughts aside as he moved towards Mikoto's room. Just as he got there, a doctor exited. "Excuse me, but how is she?"

The doctor jumped slightly before quickly turning around, "Oh Hokage-sama it's you. Hehe, forgive we haven't had much sleep all night. Good news is we believe she will survive." The doctor beamed, most likely pleased that his personnel were able to save the Uchiha matriarch from certain death. "Had she been brought in any later though, I don't think she would have made it."

Sarutobi felt a great weight lift off his shoulders. But he knew there was bad news, "But?"

The doctor seemed to sag in regret, "But we were unable to heal her spine. It's been cut clean through and several vertebrae were destroyed. She'll never walk again."

The Hokage knew it would most likely be that way but he had still hoped the woman would fully recover. _"Foolish, naïve thinking,"_ he thought to himself. "Is she awake?"

"No and she won't be allowed visitors for awhile. Maybe tomorrow, but she has just undergone hours of surgery."

He sighed, "Thank you for informing me."

With that he moved on to Naruko's room.

**(Naruko's room)**

Naruko looked at herself in the mirror. After waking up several hours ago she had gotten out of bed to stretch her extremely sore muscles. After several moments she had realized that the nails on her left hand were now claws. She then noticed that one of her canines was much longer than the other. That's when she looked at the full body mirror in the corner of the room.

She had been standing there ever since.

_**"Beautiful aren't we?"**_ the Kyuubi purred.

"_What have you done?"_ Naruko thought back. She was disturbed that she seemed to look like half of one person and half of another now.

_**"What have I done? You were the one who accepted my power. You accepted me. We are connected now,"**_ Kyuubi said. _**"I told you I would become a more prominent part of your life."**_

_"I didn't think you meant like this. I expected that we would be able to communicate, I expected an increase in power. Not this."_

_**"Oh stop bitching kit. Besides you haven't even seen the full extent of the change,"**_ her voice grew slightly malicious, _**"Lift up your bandages."**_

Naruko did so. What met her gaze was a blazing crimson slitted eye filled with anger,hate, and insanity. Slowly her thoughts became cloudy as she felt power surge through her and a truly wicked grin made its way onto her face.

_"NO!"_ Naruko mentally yelled as she pulled down the bandages, making her mind clear of the evil thoughts forming, the power, and the grin disappear. _"You're trying to control me."_

_**"Actually no, that is just the major representation of my power on you. After some practice you will be able to control your power."**_

_"That did not feel like my power. You said it would be mine," _the red-head accused.

_**"And it is kit. But you didn't expect demonic chakra to not be like that did you? It's not like the seal had enough time to dilute it. Your fault for being impatient."**_Naruko could practically hear the grin in Kyuubi's voice.

_ "Bitch."_

_**"Vixen, actually."**_

Naruko was about to retort when she heard the door to her room open. Quickly turning around she saw the Hokage.

He just stood there for a while. Looking at her. Then he crossed his arms, "Explain. Now."

_"Son of a-"_

_**"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"**_

_****_**AN: It is done. After... a long time. But yea I finished this at like two in the morning and my spellcheck was being weird and checking my spelling.**

**Anywho here's Kyuubi. Thought I was gonna make all motherly huh? Well guess what? NO! :3  
**


	5. Just an update

**Update**

Sorry everyone. It's been any awful long time since an update and I'm sorry. Ignore my redundancy; I think I'll be repeating myself several times in this. At any rate, I'm sorry there haven't been any updates but I haven't had much motivation to do more than a few words every time I get on. However, I do have some news for you all.

I'm gonna be redoing the Devils Sisters considering I'm not happy with how I started it. That's the main reason I haven't updated it, have no idea how to continue. Plus, after reading some pretty awesome Naruto fics, I disgusted with the amount of bashing and idiocy I started with. I mean sure, Konoha is still gonna be filled with assholes, but I'm gonna make it a bit more realistic (or just less retarded, no offense to anyone with a mental disorder).

Now onto my other Naruto story, Puppet Strings. That's basically suffering from, as stated, lack of motivation. Plus, I want to change a few things to the plot. Make it more interesting. Like maybe Naruko didn't lose her eye or she lost both or maybe even losing an eye much farther into the story. Except this time, Kyuubi won't just randomly give her a new eye. I've been on TVtropes a lot and I have to say, I am far more savvy in the usage of plot devices and the like. Whether I'm good at using them is up to you guys.

And now we're onto my final fic, Legacies: Redone. That's not going to go through much plot changing, maybe some re-working of the beginning chapters, like getting rid of the timeline and figuring out some way of implementing all the important info into the story itself. Same problem as the last two however, little motivation to write more than a few words.

Now, I promise to work on all these stories but I want you all to start going over them and leaving reviews telling me how to improve myself. I'm happy with the "great story, can't wait for more" comments but I want actual criticism. Something like, "HEY! You dun goofed in this part. That's not how you use (problem)" or just tell me what you think would help in the flow of my sentences or just plain checking for grammar errors. You guys can start with my one shot since it's my ONLY completed work. Just tell me the stuff from above. Ah, and ignore the comment from Ryan. He's my friend.

Now that I got all that out of the way, I promise to work as hard as I can to get out some updates.


	6. Failure

Some of you are going to be a bit pissed. I haven't updated in a long while and my last update said I would be doing my best to get out new chapters. I lied. I haven't done my best. In fact, it's been weeks since I even tried to write a chapter for any of my stories and that went nowhere fast. So I have come to the decision of deleting my unfinished stories in a week.

I'll probably just start new stories after actually making rough drafts for them. These spur of the moment stories I got going on aren't working. Sorry to any of you who had a solid interest in any of my stories.


End file.
